Periodic Table. by Colin McGuire

In reality, I am not deadly
trace quantities of me
are a dietary element.
What makes me lethal
is a brittle, steel-grey
semi-metal love.

I am thirty three.
I am arsenic.
Don't touch me.

Colin McGuire is a poet and performer from Glasgow, who lives in Edinburgh. He is the author of three collections, his first, self-published, 'Riddled with errors' (Clydesidepress, 2003), the second, a pamphlet, 'Everybody lie down and no one gets hurt,' (Red Squirrel Press, 2013), and the third, his first full collection, 'As I sit quietly, I begin to smell burning,' (Red Squirrel Press, 2014). He has performed and written relentlessly over the last five years.colinmcguirepoet.co.uk/index.html